Covid-19 lockdown: 12-year-old girl dies after walking 150 km in effort to get home in Chhattisgarh
The girl died on the fourth day of her journey, possibly due to electrolyte imbalance and exhaustion.
A 12-year-old girl who set off on a 150-km journey home on foot to Chhattisgarh from a village in Telangana collapsed and died just an hour away from her destination in Bijapur district, PTI reported. The child, who worked at a chilli field in Telangana, died on the fourth day of her trip amid the nationwide lockdown in place to control the spread of the coronavirus.
The child left from Kannaiguda village in Telangana for Bhandarpal village in Bijapur on foot with a group of labourers on April 15. She died on April 18, possibly due to electrolyte imbalance and exhaustion, Bijapur Chief Medical and Health Officer BR Pujari said, according to ANI. He added that the child tested negative for Covid-19.
“She suffered from vomiting and stomach ache,” the girl’s father told NDTV.
“The distance between the place in Telangana where she worked and Bijapur is 150 km and she died some 50 km away from her native village,” Pujari told PTI. “She had a meal on Saturday morning but then complained of stomach ache and uneasiness and died around 10 am.”
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The 12-year-old girl was the only child of her parents, who earn a living by collecting forest produce. Her father said that she had gone out to work for the first time, according to The Indian Express. The Chhattisgarh government has announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for the child’s family.
The lockdown has left migrant workers stranded in several states, with no money, little food and even fewer options of leaving the places in which they are living. The government has housed migrant workers in relief camps and forbidden inter-state movement.
The countrywide lockdown, first imposed from March 25 to April 14, has been extended till May 3. The number of Covid-19 cases in India increased by 1,336 cases in 24 hours to reach 18,601 on Tuesday morning.